Snowdonia Weekend - March 2009


20-23 March 2009

Nick and Gerry announced they would lead a weekend’s walking in Snowdonia and painted such an exciting picture of what would happen they soon had a full complement of eager participants.

To ensure everything went well they checked and re-checked the weather forecasts, went to recce the walks and also sorted out locations for our evening meals. As a result everyone set out on the Friday with plenty of sun cream and in high spirits believing nothing could go wrong. We met the first evening in the local pub for a meal and spent much of the time discussing whether or not to wear shorts the following day. Following Nick’s advice that although sunny and reasonably warm at ground level there might be a slight breeze higher up all except Nicole opted for trousers.

We set off on Saturday in pleasant sunshine for our Snowdon Horseshoe walk and enjoyed perfect walking weather until around 2000 feet when the clouds descended and we walked in mist, poor visibility and cold for the next few hours. Paul’s summit group photo must have been taken with a wonderful camera as it was able to pierce the mist and produce clear pictures. Despite the weather, it was a great day with a lot of camaraderie culminating later that evening with a communal meal at the Ty Gwyn. The only downside was Gerry badly twisted his ankle and was unable to walk for the rest of the weekend.

This had a potentially serious impact because Gerry was the route expert and on Sunday we were due to walk over Tryfan and onto the Glyders. Fortunately Steve was with us and was able to step into the breech and, with Nick, lead us through the mist and gloom so that at lunchtime we could all enjoy the whisky and port which Linda had secretly brought with her to celebrate Mothers’ Day. Never have so many men been willing to volunteer as honorary mothers! So another good day despite the weather again rounded off with a well organised communal meal this time in the Pont y Pair.

After 2 days of dodgy weather the forecast for Monday was more of the same but worse. As a result the walking plan was amended and a low level alternative devised. Just as well as the rain came down in straight lines enabling Nick to empty a pint of water out of his boots when we arrived at the Pinnacle cafe.

So what of the weekend? On a scale of 0-10 I suppose the weather gets about 4, the walks despite the weather about 7, but the friendship and evenings a 10. Thanks to both Gerry and Nick for planning the weekend and for their efforts in ensuring its success.

Chris Lloyd

Here are some pictures from the trip. The first six are from Paul. Nic has put a large set on Flickr which you can see here: I’ve chosen four for this page. Chris has added some of his photos to Nic’s Flickr set including the picture of some of the group which I’ve copied here.